{"product_id":"bd179","title":"DELS - GOB","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e“I’m a bird, I’m a tree, I’m a bike, I’m a plane, I’m the ground \r\nunderneath your feet, I’m the rain in the sky, I’m a cloud, I’m the sun,\r\n I’m a star, shoot hoops through Saturn’s rings, world’s in my palm, I’m\r\n a bear, I’m a dog, I’m a chair so get off, I’m an action figure, but \r\nI’m not trapped in a box, I’m free, free with the world at my feet, \r\nhumming A-Team theme as I’m running down the street.”\u003c\/em\u003e – “Shapeshift” \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKieren Dickins aka DELS is a new type of rapper (which is another way of\r\n saying that he’s more than just a rapper). Applying the kind of \r\nattention to detail, micro-management and macro-vision which Jay-Z used \r\nto build a business empire, DELS makes art. Popular art mind you, but \r\nart all the same, an album of emotional peaks, musical innovation and \r\nsurreal, brilliant lyrics, held together by such a unique, such a strong\r\n vision that it sounds almost silly to suggest it’s just a debut. \r\nAlready causing a stir with the tasters “Shapeshift” and “Trumpalump” \r\n(and the videos he masterminded for them), everything is now ready to \r\nshow how these pieces fit into the bigger picture. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDickins recorded \u003cem\u003eGOB\u003c\/em\u003e with just three producers, all of whom he has \r\ncollaborated with for a significant amount of time and all of whom are \r\nmore interested in creating something with him than in giving him a beat\r\n to rhyme on. Micachu is perhaps best known for her “indie” work with \r\nher band The Shapes but her interest in grime and hip hop is as well \r\ndocumented in a series of mixtapes and videos on YouTube. Together she \r\nand DELS create the bad-trip anthem “Melting Patterns” and “Violina,” \r\nwhich catches all the disorientation and anger of a relationship \r\nbreak-up. Longtime mentor and friend Joe Goddard of Hot Chip is \r\nrepresented by both “Trumpalump” (featuring his own beautifully \r\nmelancholy\/hopeful chorus) and Shapeshift, plus a brand new track, \r\n“Capsize,” which dissects something of the current political situation \r\nin the company of Roots Manuva (the only guest MC on the record) – a \r\nkind of “Ghost Town” for a new generation. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe bulk of the album, though, comes from Kwes. Already known for his \r\nsingles on Young Turks plus production work for the likes of the \r\nInvisible and the XX, in Kwes DELS found his perfect foil. In a suite of\r\n tracks ranging from “Hydronenburg,” through the truly remarkable \r\n“Moonshining,” and on into the insanely ambitious “Eating Clouds” (an \r\nearlier version of which was first heard on Ninja Tune’s XX compilation \r\nlast year), DELS and Kwes lay out the sheer, revolutionary extent of \r\ntheir ambition early. But it’s in the last three tracks of the record, \r\n“DLR,” “Droogs” and “GOB” that the record reaches its fruition. A track \r\nabout a homeless woman (“DLR,” featuring a beautiful vocal contribution \r\nfrom sometime bandmate Elan Tamara) and a true story of rape and child \r\nabuse told in reverse (the Nadsat-titled “Droogs”), this could be a \r\ndownbeat end to a record if it wasn’t for the brilliance with which the \r\nsubjects are treated, both musically and vocally. And if it wasn’t for \r\nthe last track, “GOB.” “GOB” shows Dickins, angry, battered, but \r\nultimately hopeful, rising up through all the shit of the world \r\ndetermined to triumph, succumbing neither to the nonsense around him or \r\nhis own quest for perfection, gradually lifted aloft on a monster of a \r\npiece of music (it would be doing it a misservice to call it a ‘beat’) \r\nfrom Kwes. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIt’s a superb end to what is sure to be a breakthrough record for DELS, \r\none which he can take a huge amount of credit for, having been \r\nintimately involved in every aspect of its creation, from artwork and \r\nvideos, right down to the fonts. Despite the title of his record, DELS \r\nis no loud mouth. He talks quietly, in measured tones, but when he talks\r\n we listen…\r\n\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Ninjatune","offers":[{"title":"CD","offer_id":44934130368671,"sku":"BDCD179","price":10.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"2xLP","offer_id":44934130401439,"sku":"BD179","price":20.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0493\/8563\/5999\/products\/gob-4-main.jpg?v=1736247240","url":"https:\/\/merch.ninjatune.net\/products\/bd179","provider":"Ninja Tune","version":"1.0","type":"link"}